NUTS-3 DEF03 · Germany
Population
216,8892025
GDP
€12,545M2023
Unemployment· NUTS-2 source
3.7%2025
Employment· NUTS-2 source
80.9%2025
Active firms· FR-only
—
Cadastral parcels· FR-only
—
Area
207.5 km²
TerraSight · Compare
2 regions side-by-side
DEF03 · DE136
Decision brief
Download brief (PDF)mandate-neutral · ranked by overall opportunity
Best overall fit: Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis (Opportunity 62). Runner-up: Lübeck, Kreisfreie Stadt (57). Contrarian pick: Lübeck, Kreisfreie Stadt — leads the set on Economic base (EU pctl 90).
Why you might not pick Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis
Its weakest dimension is Cost advantage (EU pctl 19) — Lübeck, Kreisfreie Stadt may suit a mandate that weights that higher.
How robust is this recommendation?
Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis leads under all four archetype mandates — the recommendation is weight-stable.
Phase-2 diligence checklist
- Site-level grid connection capacity and power pricing (beyond country-grain energy data)
- Local incentives, tax regimes and permitting timelines
- Workforce depth for your specific roles (the talent pillar is a proxy)
- Real-estate availability, rents and land — public pan-EU data stops at the Nordics
This is a mandate-neutral read. To weight the pillars to your thesis, run these regions through the Site Screener — it ranks all 1,211 regions under your weights and exports the full PDF. First-pass macro screening, not investment advice.
Composite intelligence · 0–100 EU-percentile scores
Opportunity Indexscale + growth + access + structure
57.0
62.1
Resilience Indexdiversification, stability, buffers
32.5
56.0
Quality of Lifeprosperity, health, safety, environment
57.6
75.0
Clean AirPM2.5 / PM10 / NO₂ inverted
62.7
88.3
Connectivitytransit + air + market access
53.7
70.7
Talent & Human Capitalskills, learning, knowledge workers
35.5
55.3
Growth Momentumrecent GDP / employment trajectory
42.2
28.4
Trajectories · 2012–latest
Real GDP (2020 prices)
1.3% 5y
0.4% 5y
Population
0.0% 5y
0.1% 5y
Unemployment rate
4.8% 5y
1.3% 5y
Derived comparisons
GDP per capita
€57,841
€46,715
Population density
1,045 /km²
209 /km²
Parcels per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
Firms per 1k pop
FR-only
FR-only
All indicators · 85 metrics (Eurostat, all-EU)
Economy
Gross value added, total (current prices)
€11,459M
€9,134M
GVA — agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)
€11M
€60M
GVA — industry (B–E)
€2,285M
€3,183M
GVA — manufacturing (C)
€2,031M
€3,012M
GVA — construction (F)
€422M
€523M
GVA — wholesale/retail, transport, ICT (G–J)
€3,792M
€1,428M
Net disposable household income per capita (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
€28,800
€29,100
GDP per capita in PPS (purchasing-power adjusted)
51,600 PPS
41,800 PPS
GDP per capita (current prices, EUR)
€57,900
€46,900
Gross fixed capital formation — investment (total economy) ·N2
€27,063M
€24,625M
Investment in manufacturing capex (GFCF, NACE C) ·N2
€2,460M
€4,717M
Compensation of employees (total wage bill) ·N2
€61,661M
€57,940M
GVA — finance, real estate & professional (K–N)
€2,065M
€1,942M
GVA — public admin, health & education (O–U)
€2,884M
€1,998M
Real GDP (constant 2020 prices, incl. short-term forecast)
€10,390M
€8,661M
Labour productivity per person employed (EUR)
€97,634
€88,644
Gross fixed capital formation, NUTS-3 (ARDECO)
€2,818M
€2,356M
Labour market
Employment, total persons
137,800
119,280
Self-employed persons
9,840
9,750
Employment in manufacturing (C)
19,540
36,700
Activity rate, 15–64 (NUTS-2 source) ·N2
80.3%
82.3%
Youth unemployment rate (15–24) ·N2
6.0%
4.0%
Unemployment rate 15-74, NUTS-3 native (ARDECO)
3.6%
3.1%
Labour force aged 15+ (ARDECO)
116,800
115,500
Business demography
Active enterprises (business economy, all sizes)
7,374
8,151
Enterprise births
640
632
Enterprise deaths
620
636
3-year enterprise survival rate
4.0%
3.9%
Innovation & R&D
R&D expenditure as % of GDP ·N2
1.5%
2.5%
Employment in high-tech sectors (% of total) ·N2
4.0%
6.0%
R&D personnel (% of active population, FTE) ·N2
0.8%
1.5%
Education
Tertiary education attainment, age 25–64 ·N2
31.8%
37.6%
Tertiary attainment, age 25–34 (young talent pool) ·N2
32.4%
42.8%
Adult participation in learning, age 25–64 (last 4 weeks) ·N2
9.2%
9.6%
Knowledge workers — tertiary-educated & in science/tech (% of labour force) ·N2
21.5%
25.0%
Scientists & engineers (% of labour force) ·N2
8.6%
9.3%
Tourism
Nights spent at tourist accommodation (total)
2,374,463
942,903
Mobility
Passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants ·N2
593 /1k
603 /1k
Road freight loaded (annual, thousand tonnes)
7,486 kt
5,317 kt
Distinct public-transport stop locations within the region (GTFS feeds, deduplicated across overlapping feeds by coordinate). A measure of transit-network extent.
884
1,559
Public-transport stops per 100,000 inhabitants — transit service density relative to population (GTFS feeds, coordinate-deduplicated).
408
728
Motorway density (km per 1,000 km²) ·N2
35 km/1000km²
—
Distance from the region centroid to the nearest major (large) airport, in km - air-connectivity accessibility. Lower is better.
54
59
Number of major (large) airports within 100 km of the region centroid - air-hub catchment richness.
1
6
Demography
Population aged 15–64 (working age)
139,081
132,477
Population aged 65+
51,120
50,005
Population aged under 15
26,688
31,583
Median age of population
45.8 yrs
45.3 yrs
Old-age dependency ratio (65+ / 15–64)
36.8%
37.7%
Crude rate of total population change
-0.8 /1k
0.7 /1k
Crude rate of net migration plus adjustment
5.7 /1k
3.6 /1k
Crude birth rate
7.4 /1k
9.1 /1k
Crude death rate
13.9 /1k
12.1 /1k
Live births
1,606
1,955
Deaths
3,008
2,583
Total age-dependency ratio (young+old / 15-64)
55.9%
61.6%
Total fertility rate (births per woman)
1.14
1.59
Population density (persons per km²)
1,142 /km²
209 /km²
Projected population, 2030–2040 (EUROPOP2019 baseline)
200,415
220,372
Social
At risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE) ·N2
20.9%
18.4%
Life expectancy at birth ·N2
80.8 yrs
82.2 yrs
At-risk-of-poverty rate (regional) ·N2
16.8%
13.1%
Health
Mortality, all causes (age-standardised rate) ·N2
1,015 /100k
950 /100k
Cancer mortality (age-standardised rate) ·N2
251 /100k
205 /100k
Safety & crime
Intentional homicides per 100k inhabitants
0.5 /100k
0.5 /100k
Robberies per 100k inhabitants
70.5 /100k
17.3 /100k
Burglaries per 100k inhabitants
535 /100k
148 /100k
Thefts per 100k inhabitants
2,126 /100k
832 /100k
Road traffic deaths per million inhabitants ·N2
29 /M
34 /M
Governance & institutions
Government effectiveness, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.78
1.78
Regulatory quality, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.56
1.56
Rule of law, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.58
1.58
Control of corruption, WGI score -2.5..2.5 (country)
1.82
1.82
Political stability & absence of violence, WGI score (country)
0.53
0.53
Energy
Industrial electricity price, 2-20 GWh band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.161/kWh
€0.161/kWh
Industrial gas price, 10-100k GJ band, excl. taxes (national)
€0.055/kWh
€0.055/kWh
Climate
Elevation at region centroid (Copernicus DEM)
7 m
756 m
Hot days ≥30°C (avg per year)
3 days/yr
4 days/yr
Frost days ≤0°C (avg per year)
52 days/yr
104 days/yr
Heavy-precipitation days ≥20mm (avg per year)
2 days/yr
5 days/yr